191. The Purpose of the First Meeting feat. Eric Marcoullier Artwork

VC Minute

Quick advice to help startup founders fundraise better. Founders, do you feel like you're fundraising on an uneven playing field? You are. The VC minute is here to help you level up. Venture capitalists navigate pitches and negotiate investments every day. They know the ins and outs and are up-to-date on the current funding environment. But as a founder, it may be your first foray into fundraising, and no matter how much success you've had in other areas nothing truly prepares you for the fundraising journey. The VC Minute was created to help founders close this gap. While it may seem like securing an investment at the seed stage is mostly driven by luck, there are steps founders can take to increase the odds of successfully raising a round. And that's what we're going to cover on the VC Minute through a series of short episodes. I'm going to share with you insights to help navigate the seed stage financing dynamics. I'm Rich Maloy, Managing Partner at SpringTime Ventures with 25 years business experience a dozen years in the startup ecosystem. I've applied my experience from sales, finance, and venture investing, to help startup founders fundraise better.

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191. The Purpose of the First Meeting feat. Eric Marcoullier

March 01, 2024 • Eric Marcoullier • Season 4 • Episode 191

0:00 | 3:12

Text your thoughts directly to Rich.

Just as the purpose of the deck is not to get a check, it's to get the first meeting, the purpose of the first meeting is...

About Eric Marcoullier
Eric coaches first- and second-time tech CEOs, keeping their companies alive long enough to get lucky, figure out their business, find product/market fit and replace his ass with someone who knows how to scale companies beyond $5M in ARR. His work primarily involves challenging business assumptions, providing frameworks for new situations and distilling complexity down to basic, actionable ideas. If you'd like to learn more about his coaching, visit www.marcoullier.com or www.linkedin.com/in/bpm140

About AVL Growth Partners
AVL Growth Partners, founded in 2009, is the leading fractional Finance and Accounting firm supporting organizations in pivoting from growth to scale. AVL brings an experienced team of CFOs, Controllers, and Accountants to your organization, delivering transparent, strategic actions for short and long-term success. Transform your financial approach affordably with AVL, supporting companies coast to coast - get to know AVL Growth Partners at avlgrowth.com. (Sponsored)

About SpringTime Ventures
SpringTime Ventures seeds high-growth startups in healthcare, fintech & insurtech, and logistics & supply chain. We look for founders with domain expertise, forging a path with a truly transformative technology. We only invest in software-based businesses in the USA. We bring a people-focused approach, work quickly, and reach conviction independently. Our initial check size is $600k. You can learn more about us and our approach.

Eric Marcoullier 0:01

The purpose of the first meeting is to get the second meeting. I have so many clients and so many people that they come to me with for advice about fundraising and they place such a huge burden on themselves. They want that first conversation with a VC to, I don't know, somehow end with the VC whipping out their checkbook and saying, "so, sounds great! How much do you want?" We all know that that doesn't happen. Getting a check, whether it's a $25K check from an angel or whether it's a $5 million check from a VC, it doesn't happen with one call. It happens with multiple calls. You've already done, in many ways, the hardest possible thing: you've got a phone call with a VC. Your deck or your intro email, your warm intro managed to get through the filter and you're having a first call. Give yourself a little bit of space and recognize that you're not trying to convince the VC, in that moment, to give you money. You're literally trying to convince them that you're not an asshole, and that you're really smart about this market that you're going after. And ultimately, you want to paint a huge opportunity. Again, you've already done most of that work in that deck that you sent ahead. And so now all it is is reinforcing the opportunity, reinforcing that you're somebody that they'd like to potentially work with. So give yourself a little bit of space and don't worry about anything else other than showing up as yourself and a great opportunity, and if you can get over that very low hurdle of, "I like this guy, I like this gal. I want to learn more." Then you're likely to get another phone call. And that's where you really start digging into the ins and outs of the execution. And that's what leads to getting a check.

Rich 1:59

Eric has such great advice. Though the one thing I would argue with, from yesterday's episode, is that a VC's job is not just to say no, a VC's job is to socialize and say, no. But otherwise, that reframing of a VC's job is very powerful and a great way to think about it. Thanks for spending another week with us at the VC Minute. Time is our most precious asset. I'm grateful that you'd spend some of it with me, and I'd be grateful if you took a few seconds and listened to why I think AVL is a great partner for both VC Minute and for your startup. AVL's team brings significant years of finance and accounting expertise. They ensure your path to success is crystal clear. Why go fractional? Picture this: a CFO with an average of 19 years of senior finance CFO experience, alongside controllers and accountants with 15 years under their belts. This isn't just bookkeeping. It's the expertise your company needs to navigate economic challenges. If you want to take your company to the next level and need the experience required to make it happen. Visit AVL growth.com right now.

Rich Maloy

Host